


Wolfs

by batyatoon



Category: Original Work
Genre: Fairy Tale Retellings, Gen, Inspired by Mad Max Series (Movies), Originally Posted on Tumblr, Short, Storytelling, but it was the world of Mad Max I was thinking of, could be almost any post-apoc world really, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2016-07-15
Packaged: 2018-07-24 02:13:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7489359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batyatoon/pseuds/batyatoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Originally posted <a href="http://animatedamerican.tumblr.com/post/120530236492/jupiter-mini-challenge">here</a>.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Wolfs

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [here](http://animatedamerican.tumblr.com/post/120530236492/jupiter-mini-challenge).

“… and the wolf said: The better to _eat you with!_ ” Jethy made her face as fierce and hungry as she could on those words, snarling around at all the littlers, who yelped in gleeful fear and pretended to scramble back from her, just like they did every time she told the story.

“Jethy, what’s a wolf?” asked Skirl, scooting closer. “Is it from Back Then?”

“I’unno,” said Jethy. “It was in the story when Cushla used to tell it, member? I think it’s something make-believe.”

“But what _is_ it?” insisted Skirl.

“It’s a monster,” said Maccas, authoritatively. “That eats people. Chompa-chomp.” He grinned, baring his teeth in an imitation of Jethy’s snarl. “Like you’d eat a lizard.”

“But it’s only the same size as the grandmother,” Shiftie objected.

“It dun’ have to be a _big_ monster. It tricks people and _then_ eats ‘em. Like it tricks the Little Red Girl.” Maccas snorted. “She some stupid, huh? Can’t tell a monster from her granny.”

“Nuh uh,” Skirl shot back. “If wolfs are the same size as people, maybe they can _look_ like people.”

“I reckon,” said Penny-Any slowly, dreamily, and all the littlers hushed down, “I _reckon_ a wolf’s something like a gool, maybe. My mama, she used to tell me about gools.” Penny-Any’s mama was from Outside and she knew a lot of things that nobody else did, all strange, some scary.

“What’s a gool?” asked Skirl, only a bit subdued.

“It’s when a person goes bad in the head and eats other people.”

A ripple of horrified disgust went up from the littlers, and Jethy shot Penny-Any a look of sharp reproach. “But gools are only make-believe too, _right?_ ”

“I don’t care,” Shiftie insisted, close to angry tears. “People don’t eat people, it’s _bad_ to talk like that, I don’t _like_ it.”

“No, I got it,” said Maccas, scooting closer to pat Shiftie reassuringly on the back. “Shiftie, I got it, it’s okay, it’s like monsters, right? People _don’t_ eat people, so if you _do_ , you stop being people. Right? And turn into a gool. Which _I_ reckon Penny-Any’s right and that’s just another kind of a wolf.”

“And they’re both make-believe,” said Jethy firmly, and gave Penny-Any a glare that said _don’t you dare tell them different_. “Just for stories. Now do you want to hear the rest or don’t you?”


End file.
